Civilians flee from the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013.[/caption]Three of the gunmen behind a deadly attack on a shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya, are from the United States, sources within the group that orchestrated the attack told CNN on Sunday.
CNN reported that the American-linked militants from al-Shabab, a Somali-based militant group with ties to al-Qaeda, were among the terrorists who carried out the attack on Sunday which killed at least 68 people.
Two of the American citizens are reportedly from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and the other is from Kansas City, Missouri.
Minneapolis has a large Somali community with a history of recruitment efforts by al-Shabab as well as al-Qaeda, according to News Max.
Peter King, a Republican member of the US House Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday that al-Shabab militants have recruited up to 50 people from Somali American communities inside the US.
King said the FBI is on alert for any possible plans for follow-up attacks on targets in America.
The FBI has not confirmed that Americans were involved in the attack but it is investigating the claim.
A senior State Department official told CNN that authorities were looking into the matter to determine whether any of the attackers were from the United States.
Meanwhile, American forces in Africa are reportedly drafting target lists for possible strikes against militant groups in Kenya and elsewhere in the continent.
"They're developing targets . . . and refining target lists, former Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said during an interview with ABCs This Week on Sunday.
"Intelligence has been gathered and will continue to be gathered to fill in any holes that we have about what happened in this particular attack and what could happen in the future," Gen. Chiarelli added.
US military and intelligence officials are still having significant difficulty gaining any insight into al-Shabab and the Nigerian-based militant group Boko Haram, according to The Hill, a congressional newspaper.
By Press TV
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